Edelen's first goals in following Luallen is to look into education, Medicaid and taxing districts

The biggest sources of state spending — Medicaid and education — will be among the first targets for review as Adam Edelen begins to fill the shoes of Crit Luallen as Kentucky’s auditor of public accounts.

But beyond those areas, Edelen said he wants to review spending of special taxing districts, which include fire and sewer districts as well as libraries across Kentucky’s communities.

“We’re going to focus there and make sure the people of Kentucky are getting accountability from those taxing districts,” Edelen said around 45 seconds into the video.

Edelen said he will start in January by looking at all the 1,500 special taxing districts. And then from preliminary reviews will follow up on allegations or potential warning signs of corruption or waste.

“I’m not in the office yet, so I’m not in a position to point fingers,” he said (1:45 of the video). “But I think one thing is very safe to say: over the last 13 months and 75,000 miles, I’ve listened to a lot of people, and I’ve taken copious notes. I am going to be an auditor that will remain very close to the people.”

He said he will institute policies to encourage “citizen auditors.” But he added that he won’t initiate full blown audits without doing homework first.

“I think, one, it’s important to not necessarily go on fishing expeditions,” he said.